Marine vehicles are used in a wide range of applications including exploration, military practices, and scientific research amongst others. In many applications, these vehicles are entirely or at least partially remotely controlled from another location such as a ship, vessel, or land base and use a plurality of payloads including instruments such as modems, beacons, markers, acoustic transmitters, acoustic transponders, hydrophones, sensors, seismometers, mines, munitions and similar devices. These instruments are often deployed on the seafloor or on bottom of a body of water for purposes of observation and communication, but are also employed for underwater navigation and tracking involving the integration of acoustic network devices with submersible vehicles to track targets and triangulate locations precisely.
Precise navigation during operation is a fundamental requirement for many underwater missions, and maintaining a steady course and buoyancy level is of significant concern. As a vehicle moves through the water and deploys a payload from the hull, the weight of the vehicle is reduced and the buoyancy increased. Without a method to immediately compensate this change, the vehicle may shift off course, adding a substantial variable of error to the mission. While methods involving air bladders and gas release are often used to compensate for buoyancy changes, these methods are unsuited for many operations including clandestine missions where the emission of gas bubbles is highly undesirable. Therefore, a muted or more subtle system and method are needed.
Another aspect of the deployment system is controlling how the deployed payloads are positioned for optimal functional operation. Once the payload has exited the vehicle, it may land in one of many positions on the underlying surface. To limit additional interaction and adjustment with the vehicle, the payload is required to re-orient and stabilize itself prior to its designated use. In such cases, a self-orienting payload provides the necessary means to complement such a system with a reduced detectable presence in the water.
With the growing emphasis on ocean exploration and navigation, an adaptive system for efficient and low profile payload deployment is highly beneficial to save time and labor costs associated with the use of submersible or water vehicles.